Robert Bowling Explains Activision Departure

There's been ongoing speculation as to why Robert Bowling left his position at Infinity Ward as its creative strategist. While it has been shrouded in mystery ever since his announcement, the former Activision employee has explained the reasoning behind his departure.

The once public face for Call of Duty stated to Gamaustra that, when he left Activision, his next venture would be to "create new opportunities and experiences" from the get-go. This was echoed by the confirmation of the opening of his new game developer studio Robotoki.

He also said he knew what he "didn’t want to do" and, as stated in the comments about his studio's inception, it's "important to have complete control" over how Robotoki is formed.

"After each project, you sit back and you contemplate what you’re passionate about and you have to make your next move based on that," said Bowling. "When I left, it was solely to follow that passion to create new opportunities and experiences — not knowing yet what that would be until the decision to form Robotoki and rally support behind our first project was decided."

"It was important for me to have complete control over how Robotoki was formed and to lay a solid foundation for the creative talent that would join it and, most importantly, the creative freedom required to embark on a new intellectual property as ambitious as our first project."

Robotoki's first project, which is due for a release on next-generation consoles, mobile platforms and PC, will be based on an online universe. Before recognizing any specific gameplay elements, Bowling said with his studio the plan is to firstly build the universe and then identify the experience which will follow after.

"I believe we have moved away from telling our players how to enjoy our game, and our job is merely to provide them a platform to dictate their own experience. Therefore a player on mobile should be able to engage in the universe, continue their progression, grow their persistent character, and experience the lore of the universe in a unique way from the other less tactile experiences on PC or consoles and vice versa."

"Where the at-home experience may be focused on action, the mobile experience can be a completely different, strategy focused experience. However, each contribute and affect the overall state of the universe equally," Bowling concluded.

Robotoki is on the lookout for for talent while its first project due to be fully unveiled later this year.